So the team has blacked out the city, draining power for a prototype MRI.

Bronco strolls into the HQ just in time to see the lights go out.

Garrison and Bronco catch up to the team in the darkened hanger looking at a screen.

There is certainly another floor.

The shut the machine off, which brings the lights back.

The team openly discusses Eve. Kenji leaves to call his father for advice.

He actually leaves the room to discuss things with Eve.

0G and Monolith discuss recent events. Monolith revisits the Starbird origin story - including how she saw 0G get his powers.

Kenji returns. The consensus is to punch through the floor. It takes no effort to pop the elevator's false bottom.

Kenji sends Gal in. HE then reroutes video for the rest of the team to watch. A quick glimpse of Eve pops on the screen before vanishing.

Gal can't pry the door so Bronco tries. He gets it open, then klaxons sound and Max retreats his hands before the hatch snaps shut and Bronco gets gassed. He tries to punch his way out, fails, and succumbs to the gas.

Doc Tesla teleports blindly in to the elevator shaft, then succumbs to the gas, too.

Gal steps in, whips out the sword and carves a hole in the hatch. Max takes in the gas, and Eve reverses the vents. This creates a vacuum momentarily. 0G's training kicks in and he offers a suggestion which helps everyone who's not unconscious. The smoke clears and the elevator shaft is devoid of Bronco and Tesla. 0G pops the big inside door with ease. It's a big shiny tech room.

Kenji hears and understands the Japanese voice issuing warnings on the other side of the door. And then the robots attack.

Gal flattens 5 with his rocket fist. Gal hears the warning voice getting ready to up the ante.

Now it's 8 robots in an octagonal room versus the heroes. Doc Tesla and Bronco are in glass tubes in the middle of the room.

A fray breaks out. Max and Gal go for four, Monolith and 0G go for the other four.

The fray abruptly stops at a big deactivation. The robots stop. The big screen pops to life and Jume, Kenji's dad's major domo is on the screen. He berates Kenji for the interruption, then deactivates Galvanos. He releases Bronco and Doc Tesla, then reveals the origin of Kenji Kobayashi.

Mom, Dad, and little Kenji were in an accident. A bad one. The last occupied tube in the room is occupied by a little Japanese boy. And Kenji that we know is a robot. And he doesn't know anything about any of this. He asks us, in a totally non-threatening slightly guilt-trippily, to keep quiet about the bot thing. We agree. He leaves the screen, and the new big door back out of the room opens.

Kenji's on his way down in a wheelchair. We conspire to keep this from the little robot under the guise of 'important personal effects' of his father's. Doc Tesla wants to study the gear. 0G really really doesn't want any studying at all. Gal is picked up and the heroes leave the room.

Van Jove starts talking in 0G's head. Tesla is confused by 0G's non-sequitor responses. Van Jove links 0G's mind to Tesla's. He points out Tesla's pseudo-insane split-personality. They leave his mind. 0G wrecks the hallway on the way out. Tesla points out he can teleport. The grumpiness continues. Van Jove keeps baiting and talking over 0G as Nicolai is talking over Doc Tesla. Doc Tesla teleports out in frustration.

The doorbell rings. Bronco goes to answer. Monolith and Max Plastic meanwhile are trying to explain to Kenji why he shouldn't go push the big shiny red button in the basement.

It's Garth at the door. He wants to talk to the team. Bronco shuts the door in his face and heads to find 0G. Lady A comes in moments later. She calls the team to a meeting. She's pissed at us, again. This time about the power blackout. Maybe EAGLE will be chill if we share our new MRI with them.

Garth is brought in. He has an offer. He wants the team. Again. 0G tells him to go away. Tesla wants him to keep talking. Garth leaves. Eve is next on the discussion agenda. Kenji admits he didn't create Eve, he got her from Garth. On that note the meeting is called and the heroes head off to ponder recent events. Monolith and Tesla keep talking. Lady A comes back in to send them to bed. Tesla points out that he didn't appreciate getting a talking to...

0G sleeps. Dreams. He's on the shuttle again. And Van Jove is his copilot. The have a chat. He says Guardsman's not dead. He warns of a storm coming. Van Jove refers to the mysterious They that are running things. Now they're in Berlin and Lady A's getting killed. Then Dallas. Lady A seems to die a lot. She's a clone. So is Guardsman. Now there's a German boy who's only a mind. They are using him. Van Jove is mounting a resistance. 0G is to be the lynch pin. He's the runner up, though, he wanted Gravity originally. Oops, time to wake up. A couple more cryptic warnings and he's gone. 0G wakes up, barely holding on to the revelatory dream.

0G gets up and heads to the machine shop to seek out Tesla. He wants to go back to the room. He convinces 0G and they go and disturb Jume again. His mood is no better than last time. They chat. Jume encourages them to not trifle any further with the room. At all. Anymore. The agree and leave.

(I didn't keep good track of who 0G spoke to about dropping the leadership of the team, or when. So we'll just skip to breakfast).

At breakfast Lady A announces the change in leadership of the Sentinels. Lady A also mentions a shitstorm is coming.

As if on cue, a helicopter is coming in. It's another guy in a suit summoning us all to DC, again. He leaves. 0G does his sliding trick and boom, we're in DC. We go to visit the President himself. Introductions are made, lip service is paid, and incidentally, Ronnie knows Kenji's dad. He has an offer for us. More of an imposition than an offer. He's going to nationalize the team. Though a partnership with Garth. He leaves to let us think about a creative way to say yes.

Van Jove warns 0G. Then an explosion rips through the White House. It's Lord Sovereign in the remains of the Oval office. Fight or run? We fight. Tesla sends Kenji back to the base to get Gal. Garrison's gearing up, too, in his old costume. The fray begins in DC.

Lord S shrugs off most damage. It goes back and forth... just kidding, we don't do shit against him. Lady A grabs a bazooka. Lord S sees it coming and reverses it. Bronco gets in the way and takes the hit for Lady A. He seems to be dead, but gets back up never surrenderedly and wallops Lord S astoundingly, cracking his helmet; revealing his the Guardsman. Oh shit. Gal and Garrison enter the fray. Guardsman bails, Garrison follows. Van Jove wants 0G to talk to the people and take control. He resists and breaks the connection with Van Jove. He follows Guardsman. Monolith orders Gal and Tesla to catch us with 0G. A streak takes Garrison down. Gal peels off to help him.

Tesla catches up and zaps Guardsman. 0G uses the distraction to slide himself and Guardsman into space, where he hits Guardsman with the Moon. 0G catches up to the Moon and goes to see the crater. Guardsman dead. Dead dead. Then 0G's mind kind of snaps. Then he realizes he's screwed. The radiation seeps through his shield and he dies on the Moon next to Guardsman.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Gal is pursuing the Garrison hit. He's in the Caribbean on a small island. It's Uberman whaling on Garrison. Gal comes in hot. He pulls the sword and whales right back on Uberman. He cleaves the Nazi hard, killing him with one shot.

So back at the White House, the president is dead and EAGLE is debriefing us.

The issue ends with a shot of the Moon, and the dead bodies of 0G and Guardsman in his Lord S outfit.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

So as those of you who have been following this blog know I plan to release villain roster books for BASH Ultimate Edition, ICONS and Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition.

I had hoped to do Villains & Vigilantes, Champions and a couple of others, but in the end they either never got back to my request, or I didn't like their licensing deals.

But...

You also know that I plan to post up Zenith Universe heroes for free on the website, so there need be no licensing issues as I believe it falls under the provisions of "fair use". Please correct me if I am wrong on this one.

So what systems would you like to see heroes statted up in? The above three are a given, plus V&V and Champions. I was also thinking 4C and SAGA as well.

Anthony and I had a meeting today. It went well. We had decided two weeks ago to scrub the previous art and go in a whole new direction, a more "animated" direction. That doesn't me going in a Timm way, but instead going for a more simplistic yet dynamic direction/style.

About 3 days ago I started to have doubts and began second guessing myself.

Well after seeing all 10 characters pencil sketches (which I will start previewing here and on various boards tonight or tomorrow), of which 6 were done at the table, I can say that this was the smartest choice we made!

Zenith Comics will now have a definite style and look to it which is a really awesome thing. I say this because for me "branding" has become a very important process for me. I recognize the strength and the power of it and I look forward to having the Zenith "shield" become something of an association with quality.

Dan House is hard at work on a new front page image for the website as well, which is based on a classic comic cover and will be sure fun.

Also another decision I came to today is this. While I will be selling villain roster books, I am going to be giving away heroes for free on the website. Why? Well with players in your games already playing heroes, what you would need more than MORE heroes would be a hole in the head. Villains? Sure. Absolutely, but to try and sell hero books doesn't sit right with me.

Oh and I will be giving them in BASH, ICONS and M&M3rd variants, which eventually all the villain roster books will be released in as well.

The also I am happy to announce a new member of the Zenith Comics family, Jim Stoner! Jim has an understanding of building characters that just blows my mind. As such he has come on-board to the stat blocks for the villains to be in "Zenith Comics Presents: Public Enemies Volume 1", and I hope to keep him for all future volumes as well.

Beyond that my end of it all, the writing, is back on track and I am shooting for a mid-July release of the first book, end of August at the latest.

Oh and the first issue of "Zenith Comics Presents: The Podcast!" got a great response with over 300 downloads! Issue 2 (interview with Steven Long of HERO games) is in production now and have set a date for the Issue 3 interview with Jeff Grubb.